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Hello It's that time of year for another new diary ... I'm not a newbie, I've been around these parts for years, never quite knowing whether I should be on here or the Mortgage Free boards, but after much consideration I have decided to return here for my next diary installment.

I have previous chapters of my journey on here, but a brief history of my last ten years is as follows: I am a single parent to a 14 year old boy with ASD. I love him to bits, he is my whole world, but causes me a great deal of stress and worry too We have been living in a flat for the last 10 years and I have worked hard to clear my mortgage on it. In March this year we finally moved into a small house, which is lovely, and near my Mum. My brother lent me £30k to help get the house which is my 'debt' that I am paying back. The monthly budgets are stupidly tight, partly as I want to get it paid asap even though he is in no hurry for it back.

Looking further ahead ds is in year ten so only has 18 months until his GCSE's. After this he wants to do an apprenticeship which, from a financial point of view, means my child benefit, tax credits and child maintenance will stop , meaning a drop in total income from approx £1900 to approx £1200 So, this year could potentially be my last one with this extra income, so I need to maximise the potential ...

My next post will list my SOA and my plans for 2018, please stick around for the ride, all help, support and thoughts are appreciated and very much welcome

So a rather early morning this morning, I couldn't sleep due to stuff going on at work again

So far this morning I have stripped my bed and remade it, brought all the washing / cups / shoes etc down from upstairs and put them in the appropriate place downstairs. I have tidied the lounge and kitchen, opened a few windows to get some fresh air in and now am catching up on here for ten minutes.

I need to take ds to the station in an hour or so to get the train to his Dads, then I need to pop round to drop off a birthday present. Other than that I'm not too sure what today's plans involve; I did think I'd go for a walk and do some job spotting but at the moment it's hammering down with rain so I may re-think that.

Tomorrow is Mothers Day so I need to sort out something for Mum. I'll be watching my footie, we've got Spurs tomorrow so I don't expect us to get anything from that game but we'll see

I went to the match as I've just started working for Opta Sports as an analyst and they gave me this fixture. Lovely club that really look after people there. I'll be down there again this Saturday for the West Brom game too hopefully.

So this week has been long and tiring, a member of our team is signed off and I'm picking up quite a bit of her work. We also had parents evening this week and I came home shattered.

The next night I came home to the best surprise of my life ... ds had noticed I was tired and had decided to come home from school and tidy the house for me He'd tidied through, emptied and reloaded the dishwasher and hoovered

I was so so happy and it's still making me smile It's also made my saturday morning house list much quicker and easier this week, so I have so far managed to clean the bathroom, clean the downstairs loo, clean the hall, tidy the lounge, tidy my bedroom, filled the dishwasher and it's doing it's thing, second load of washing is in, windows are open in every room and there is very fresh air coming in

Still to be housework wise: finish clearing the washing mountain, hoover through, clean the conservatory, clear the paperwork pile, clean the kitchen. I also want to empty the junk out of the car, fill the windscreen washer thing, go to the Post Office and do my Super 6

"A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of" Jane Austen in Mansfield Park.***Fall down seven times,stand up eight*** ~~Japanese proverb.It starts with you, it starts from now. *** It is ok to be me.***
***Keep plodding*** Out of debt, out of danger.

Yep definitely not a classic, but three points is what matters. Last week we played great and got nothing, this week we were poor and won

So today has been a very lazy day - last night a friend came back after our night out and left at 4 this morning. I am so tired now, ds came home and woke me up at about 8.30, so very little sleep was had

I have managed a nap on the sofa but I still haven't got dressed yet. It was looking like a surefire snow day tomorrow but the snow has melted quite a bit and we've had a text to say at the moment they're planning on opening school unless we get significant snow tonight. Best snow dance moves being prepared in our house right now

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